The Corot satellite is composed of:
- a PROTEUS platform (Plateforme Reconfigurable pour l'Observation, pour les Télécommunications et les Usages Scientifiques). This bus is designed for 500 kg class satellites, operating in low earth orbit. Corot is the third mission to use this platform and the associated generic ground control segment after Jason-1 and Calipso.
- a payload which is made up of a telescope (2 mirrors off axis), a wide field camera operating in the visible, an equipment bay hosting analogical and digital electronics and a flight software in charge of the aperture photometry processings and the delivery of angle error measurement data to the platform (fine pointing mode).